286 
422 

; 1 It A. T I N 



DELIVERED BY 



THE HON. HENRY S. FOOTE, 



ON THE 



Fourth of July, 1850, 



^tl.cO* 53QCg}JKy'QSrESGtEffiEar EP £53£ka^®aaaa 



with 



AN INTRODUCTION. 



Published by the National Monument Society 



WASHINGTON : 
PRINTED FY HENRY POLKINHORN. 

MDCCCL, 



mo 






INTRODUCTION. 



The Board of Managers of the Washington National Monumekt. Society, 
having deemed it expedient to celebrate the anniversary of our National Inde- 
pendence, appointed a committee, consisting of Messrs. Watterston, Smith , and 
Crawford, to make the necessary arrangements for the celebration. 

The honorable Henry S. Foote, of Mississippi, was requested to deliver an 
Oration or Address on that occasion, to which he kindly assented; and the neces- 
sary preparations were made for the celebration at Monument Place, by an exten- 
sive awning, and other accommodations, for those who might attend. The exces- 
sive heat of the weather prevented the formation of a military and civic procession, 
as was at first contemplated by the Board of Managers, but a large number of ci- 
tizens and strangers attended, to participate in the ceremonies on that occasion. 
A spacious and commodious platform was erected at the east front of the Monu- 
ment for the accommodation of the orator and invited guests ; and at the appointed 
hour the Rev. Mr. Butler opened the ceremonies with an appropriate prayer, and 
was followed by Walter Lenox, Esq., Mayor of Washington, who read the 
Declaration of Independence in a clear and distinct voice, and was succeeded by the 
honorable Henry S. Foote, in an eloquent Address suited to the occasion. The 
Rev. Mr. Morgan pronounced the benediction ; and the company were then in- 
vited to witness the ceremony of hoisting and laying the large block of marble 
presented by the Corporation, to be deposited in the Monument, at its west front. 
General Walter Jones, on behalf of the Councils of the city, delivered an eloquent 
Address on the occasion, and G. W. P. Custis presented, with some feeling re- 
marks, a box of sand, sent by Dr. LiEBER,and taken from the tumulus of Kosciusko, 
in Poland, to be mixed with the mortar used in laying one of the stones of the 
Monument. The ceremonies on this occasion were very interesting and imposing, 
and at their conclusion the company retired highly gratified with the ceremonies 
they had witnessed. 

The President of the United States, with a portion of the Cabinet, united in the 
ceremonies of this interesting occasion, and manifested a deep interest in the success 
of the patriotic undertaking of the Society. It was the la3t celebration he was 
destined to attend ; for, a few days afterwards, he departed this life, after a short 
and fatal illness, to the profound regret and sorrow of his countrymen. 

A short time before his death, he uttered the following sentiment in relation to 
the magnificent Monument now being erected in this city, which it is hoped wil* 
be reciprocated by every American who venerates the character of the great bene- 
factor of his country. "Let it rise !" said he; u let it ascend ivithout interruption; 
let it point to the skies; let it stand forever as a lasting monument of the gratitude and 
affection of a free people for the Father of his Country/'' 



PRAYER 



Delivered by the Rev. Mr. Butler a* the commencement of the 

ceremonies. 



Almighty ami most merciful Father ! King; of kings and 
Lord of Lords, wliose wise providence ordereth all things in hea- 
ven and earth, Thou art a strong tower and defence to those who 
(rust in Thee ; Thou art the giver of every good and perfect gift. 
We adore Thee as the God in whom our fathers trusted, and were 
delivered. We have heard with our ears, Oh Lord, and our fa- 
thers have declared unto us, the noble works which Thou didst in 
their days in the old time before them* Thou didst give them a 
goodly heritage ; Thou wert with them in their hour of peril ; 
Thou didst crown them with victory in the day of battle; Thou 
didst break the rod of their oppressors; Thou didst bestow upon 
them the unspeakable blessings of civil and religious freedom. 

We thank Thee, Heavenly Father, for all these thy mercies be- 
stowed upon them and upon us their children. We praise Thee 
that we are still permitted to hail this anniversary of our National 
Independence as a prosperous and united people. May we recall 
Thy mercies which have been ever of old ; may we remember that 
it is not for our righteousness that Thou hast brought us in to pos- 
sess this good land. Not unto us, Oh Lord, not unto us, but unto 
Thy name be the praise. Now that our flocks and our herds are 
multiplied, and our silver and gold are multiplied, and all that we 
have is multiplied, let us not say in our hearts that our power and 
the mightiness of our hands have gotten us their wealth, but let 
us remember the Lord our God ! 

We confess before Thee, Oh God, with shame and humilia- 
tion, that many sins testify against us. We have abused thy gifts ; 
we have been lifted up with pride; we have boasted of our 
strength; we have been ungrateful for Thy mercies; we have 
not been devoted to thy service. We beseech Thee mercifully 
to look upon our infirmities, and turn from us those evils that we 
most justly have deserved. Turn Thou us, Oh Lord, and so 
shall we be turned. Make us to be a nation fearing Thee, and 
working righteousness. Teach us to realize that it is righteous- 
ness that exalteth a nation, and sin only that is a reproach to any 



people. Make us a wise and understanding nation to know and 
do Thy will. Then shall our land give forth her increase, and 
God, even our own God, shall give us His blessing, and all the 
ends of the world shall fear Him. 

We pray Thee, Heavenly Father, to avert from our beloved 
land every impending evil, and to withhold from us Thy just, and 
desolating judgments. Perserve us still as a peaceful and united 
people. Remove from us all alienation, wrath, clamor, and evil 
speaking. Let us not be visited with the unspeakable woes and 
horrors of disunion, anarchy, and war. We pray for Thy special 
and abundant gifts of wisdom, forbearance, justice, and paternal 
love to all our magistrates, lav/givers, and public officers in this 
crisis of our country's history. Bless the President, the Vice Pre- 
sident, and the Congress of these United States : give unto them 
wisdom to devise and fidelity to execute such measure as shall 
restore harmony and love, and promote the public prosperity and 
peace. May the ties which bind us together as a people be, by 
the exercises and influences of this day over all the land, mightily 
strengthened and closely drawn. We entreat Thee by the me- 
mory of Thy mercies in the past; we implore Thee by all the 
blessings of the present, and all the hopes of the future, that Thou 
wouldst stretch forth the right hand of Thy power to help us, 
that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, 
may be established among us for all generations. 

O God, the creator and preserver of all mankind, we humbly 
beseech Thee, for all men, that thou wouldst be pleased to make 
Thy ways known unto them, Thy saving health to all nations. 
Let Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done on earth as it in 
heaven. Hasten the period when the mountain of the Lord's 
house shall be established on the top of the mountain, and be ex- 
alted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it. We ask 
these blessings in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our 
Lord and Saviour. Amen ! 



ORATION. 

Friends and Fellow- Citizens : 

Once more have we assembled upon this, the natal day of 
American Independence, formally to manifest the respect and 
gratitude which we feel for those wise and patriotic ancestors to 
whom, under Heaven, we are indebted for the priceless blessings 
of civil and religious liberty. Almost two-thirds of a century have 
now passed away since the adoption and signature of that solemn 
declaration which announced to the civilized nations of the eaith 
that the British colonies in America were free, sovereign, and in- 
dependent States ; and the particular day in the calendar upon 
which this important declaration was made, has ever since been 
set apart as a day of peculiar sacredness, whose annual recurrence 
has uniformly called forth in all countries under the sun, where 
the principles of republican freedom are held in respect, those 
sentiments of gratulation, and rejoicing, and profound thankful- 
ness which I am sure now animate the hearts of those by whom 
I am surrounded. It would be a great error, in my judgment, to 
suppose that the sage and philosophic statesmen who were assem- 
bled in Independence Hall upon the fourth day of July, seventeen 
hundred and seventy-six, were induced to undertake the high act 
of State which has given to them all a deathless immortality, by a 
desire merely to relieve the colonies which they represented from 
the burden of illegal taxation. The signers of the Declaration have 
themselves formally pronounced the great and salutary truth, that 
" Governments long established should not be changed for light 
and transient causes;" and in assuming for those whom they re- 
presented " that equal station among the Powers of the earth to 
which the laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitled them," 
they conceived " that a decent respect for the opinions of man- 
kind" required them to make known "the causes which con- 
trolled their action. It was no grievance, either menaced merely 



6 

or' which (hey had reason to apprehend might in future be experi- 
enced hy the colonies ; it was not a feeling- of mere local jealousy, 
nor a desire for sectional aggrandizement, which brought about 
the separation of the colonies from the paient country, but " a 
long train of abuses, pursuing invariably the same object, evin- 
cing," as they thought, " a design to reduce them under absolute 
despotism," which stimulated them to that noble assertion both 
of the "right" and "duty" of those subjected to injustice to "throw 
off the government" which had become tyranically oppressive 
to them, and to " provide new guards for their future security." 
The solemn recital of those wrongs and usurpations which is to 
be found in that sacred instrument which has this moment been 
read in our hearing, must ever be regarded by all unprejudiced 
minds as more than justifying the men of the Revolution in re- 
sorting to the God of Battles for deliverance from thraldom ; for 
we find in this black catalogue of grievances almost every enor- 
mity that has ever yet disgraced the annals of tyranny, among 
which are the following : I. The refusal on the part of the Bri- 
tish Sovereign to give " his assent to laws most wholesome and 
necessary to the public good." 2. " The obstruction of the 
laws of naturalization," so important to the inhabitants of a newly 
settled region. 3. The interruption of the administration of jus- 
tice, " by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary 
powers." 4. The erection of a "multitude of offices" by a self- 
assumed power, and " sending into the colonies swarms of new 
officers to harass the people and eat out their substance." 5. The 
keeping up of standing armies in time of peace without the con- 
sent of the colonial legislatures. 6. The attempt to render the 
military independent of and superior to the civil power. 7. The 
overthrow of the right of trial by jury. 8. The abdication of all 
government in the colonies, by declaring them out of his protec- 
tion, and actually waging war against them. These, together 
with the most odious and annoying restraints upon trade, the most 
selfish and illiberal interference with the domestic industry of the 
colonies, and the imposition of unconstitutional taxation, made it 
indispensable that our colonial forefathers should forever terminate 



■SET ° F INGRESS 




011 460 189 3 . 

their "allegiance (o the British Crown," and secede from (heir 
connexion with (he British people, holding them, as they held 
" the rest of mankind, enemies in war — in peace, friends " 

It will not be expected that I shall descant at present upon ihe 
incidents which marked the progress of our revolutionary struggle, 
as they are doubtless already familiar to all whom I now address. 
Yet may it be more or less profitable to us to notice for a moment 
a few of those incipient movements in the colonies, which, looking 
at first to nothing beyond securing the repeal of British enact- 
ments deemed unjust, in some regularly parliamentary mode, were 
fated soon to eventuate in the establishment of a solid confedera- 
te organization of sufficient potency to break to pieces the solid 
fabric of British power, and forever to sever from the British em- 
pire the fairest colonial domain over which king or potentate has 
ever yet been known to wield the sceptre of authority . 1 . Among 
the colonial movements alluded to, we find legislative resolutions 
against acts of Parliament regarded as unconstitutional in their 
character, or felt to be oppressive in their operation. 2. Articles 
of agreement, called associations, " by which those who subscribed 
them were bound not to purchase or use the manufactures of 
England, except in cases of the most urgent necessity. 3. Efforts 
to bring about concert of action between Virginia and the colo- 
nies of the North. 4. Plan of a general Congress. Thus far 
did the people of the colonies proceed without any apparent desire 
to dissolve that union which had so long subsisted between them- 
selves and the parent State ; nor can it be asserted that any ex- 
pectation was generally entertained that such an event would fi- 
nally take place, before the first actual collision of arms between 
the regular soldiers of Britain and the undisciplined militia of the 
colonies, which occurred in the neighborhood of Boston, upon the 
1 7th day of June, 1775. That this was the condition of the pub- 
lic mind in America up to the period specified, isalike testified by 
authentic legislative acts, and by the well known declarations of 
prominent individuals who were shortly to participate in the scenes 
of revolutionary strife which were, in fact now almost at hand. 
In the address of the first Congress to the people of Great Britian, 



8 

the following si liking language was held : " You have been told 
that we are seditious, impatient of government, and desirous of in- 
dependence. Be assured that these are not facts, but calumnies." 
General Washington himself, though endowed with a sagacity as 
lo the future which few men have ever evinced, was far from look- 
ing with confidence lo the commencement of civil war, though he 
seems never to have doubted that if blood should be once shed, in 
such a contest of opinion as was then in progress, it would be 
wholly impossible to prevent the colonies from asserting and achiev- 
ing their independence. Whilst attending as a member of Con- 
gress from Virginia, he responded to a letter which he had received 
from a British officer at Boston, between whom and himself re- 
lations of particular friendship existed, in part as follows: "Al- 
though you are taught to believe that the people of Massachusetts 
are rebellious, setting up for independence and what not, give me 
leave, my good friend, to tell you that you are abused, greatly 
abused. This I advance with a degree of confidence and bold- 
ness which may claim your belief, having better opportunities of 
knowing the sentiments of the people you are among, from the 
leaders of them in opposition to the present measures of the ad- 
ministration, than you have from those whose business it is not to 
disclose truths, but to misrepresent facts, in order to justify them- 
selves, as much as possible, to the world for their own conduct." 
It may be, indeed, most safely asserted that, had the British gov- 
ernment, even at that late period, consented to do justice to the 
colonies, and refrained thereafter from unjust and insulting legis- 
lation, the great event of American independence might have been 
postponed at least for another generation. But Britain was inex- 
orable. Profoundly blind to all the consequences, likely to ensue, 
totally misunderstanding the character of a portion of her own 
people — not supposing it even possible that less lhan three millions 
of colonists would venture to engage in a war with one of the most 
powerful nations of Europe — and never doubting that if even the 
spirit of rebellion should display itself in a few quarters, North and 
South, it would be an easy task to repress it at once, and bring 
the offenders to justice, she persevered in her course of unjust ag- 



9 

gression, and ultimately ordered the commencement of hostilities. 
The result is before the world — a perpetual lesson to tyrannic 
rulers, and to freemen unwilling to be despoiled of their dearest 
rights! Thrice fortunate was it for our colonial ancestors that 
there was among them at this critical period such a personage as 
George Washington, in whose illustrious character were blend- 
ed all the great qualities which so pre-eminently fitted him for the 
performance of those arduous duties which were about to be de- 
volved upon him. No one has ever lived concerning whose merits 
as a public man so much has been said in just commendation as 
of General Washington ; and yet may it be well doubted 
whether the language of eulogy has quite come up to his un- 
equalled virtues and his exalted capabilities. Of his admirably 
balanced intellect, judgment was the leading and predominating 
attribute. Cool, considerate, unprejudiced ; firm, conscientious, 
persevering ; pervious to the counsels of those in whom he con- 
fided, yet resolute, fearless and energetic in action. Modest, but 
dignified in his manners, to a degree at times almost bordering 
upon sternness — yet kindly affectioned, sociable, and susceptible 
of the strongest personal attachments. As ambitious of true glory 
as a wise man could well be, yet profoundly indifferent to the voice 
of contemporaneous applause, and utterly regardless of the delu- 
sive tokens of mere transient admiration. Free from all appear- 
ance of envy, selfishness, or " that weakest weakness vanity," he 
on all suitable occasions admitted and extolled the merits of others, 
whether inimical or friendly to himself — was never in his life sus- 
pected of intriguing for his own advancement to public honors, or 
for the prostrati( .1 of a rival ; and he is believed on no occasion to 
have indulged even for a moment in indelicate self-commendation. 
His early education was of a very limited character, indeed , but he 
amply supplied his deficiencies in this respect by a close observation 
of the world, and by a free and unreserved intercourse with men of 
learning. His extensive and varied experience both as a military 
man and as a colonial legislator (having served continuously for fif- 
teen years in the House of Burgesses of his native State) particularly 
qualified him for the career which destiny seems to have opened be- 



10 

fore him; as, in pursuing this career, he was to be called upon alike 
for sage counsel in regard to the high exigencies of State, and to meet 
the enemies of his country in the field, as commander-in chief of 
the armies raised for the maintenance of freedom and independence. 

It is generally conceded that there was one ingiedient in the 
character of General Washington which distinguished him pie- 
eminently among the statesmen and heroes whose fame has been 
committed to authentic history. I allude to that astonishing self- 
control exercised by him on all occasions, even amidst the most 
trying circumstances of his public life. " He that is slow to an- 
ger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than 
he that taketh a city;" and of Washington has it been truly said, 
" His highest ambition was for the happiness of mankind; his 
noblest victory the conquest of himself ." 

Though endowed with sensibilities of more than ordinary sus- 
ceptibility, and exposed for many years of his life, in a peculiar 
manner, to causes of irritation and excitement, he is not known 
ever to have given way to a public exhibition of passion, or intem- 
perate feeling of any kind : and, though bitterly assailed during 
his second Presidential term by a portion of the newspaper press 
of the country, yet did he bear up and sustain himself under 
coarse revilement, caustic denunciation, and even the low ridicule 
of carping censurers, with a patient dignity and unfaltering per- 
formance of duty which justify me in saying of him, in the lan- 
guage of poetry : 

The man whose mind, on virtue bent, 
Pursues some greatly good intent 
With undiverted aim, 
Serene beholds the angry crowd, 
Nor can their clamors, fierce and loud, 
His stubborn honor tame. 

Not the proud tyrant's fiercest threat, 
Nor storms that from their dark retreat 
The tameless surges wake ; 
Not Jove's great bolt that strikes the pole, 
The firmer purpose of his soul 
With all its power can shake. 



11 

Should Nature's frame in ruins fall, 
And chaos o'er the sinking ball 
Resume primeval sway, 
His courage, chance and fate defies, 
Nor feels the wreck of earth and skies 
Obstruct its destined way. 

Fifteeen years after the death of Washington, one who would 
not be suspected of being inclined to do him more than justice, 
said : 

" He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest uncon- 
cern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting 
until tvery circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed ; refraining 
if he saw a doubt ; but when once decided, going through with his purpose what- 
ever obstacles offered. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexi- 
ble I have ever known — no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or 
hatred being able to bias his opinion." 

Mr. Jefferson adds : 

" He was, indeed, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good, and a great man." 
Impartial history will record that General Washington was 
not less successful in administering the civic concerns of the Re- 
public, as I he Chief Magistrate of a free and enlightened people, 
than he had been as a Commander-in-Chief in the war that esta- 
blished our national independence. Twice was he unanimously 
elected to the Presidential office, in opposition to his own ardent 
wish to escape that distinction ; and it is remarkable that eminent 
statesmen, of the most dissimilar opinions, and cherishing for each 
other the fiercest political rivalry, agreed in urging him to continue 
in public life. For thus did Mr. Jefferson write to General Wash- 
ington in 1792 : 

" The confidence of the whole Union is centred in you. Your being at the 
helm will be more than an answer to every argument which can be used to alarm 
and lead the people in any quarter into violence or secession. North and South 
will hang together, if they have you to hang on; and if the first corrective of a 
numerous representation should fail in its effect, your presence will give time for 
trying others not inconsistent with the Union and peace of the States. I am per- 
fectly aware of the oppression under which your present office lays your mind, 
and of the ardor with which you pant for retirement to domestic life. But there 
is sometimes an eminence of character on which society have such peculiar claims 
as to control the predilection of the individual for a particular walk of happiness 



12 

and restrain him to that alone, arising from the present and future benedictions of 
mankind. This seems to be your condition, and the law imposed on you by Pro- 
Tidence in forming your character and fashioning the events on which it was to 
operate ; and it is to motives like these, and not to personal anxieties of mine or 
others, who have no right to call on you for sacrifices, that I appeal from your 
former determination, and urge a revival of it, on the ground of a change in the 
aspect of things. Should an honest majority result from the new and enlarged 
representation — should those acquiesce whose principles or interests they may 
control — your wishes for retirement would be gratified with less danger, as soon 
as that shall be manifest, without awaiting the completion of the second period of 
four years. One or two sessions will determine the crisis ; and I cannot but hope 
that you can resolve to add one or two more to the many years you have already 
sacrificed to the good of mankind." 

And thus wrote Mr. Hamilton on the same subject : 

" It is clear that, if you continue in office, nothing materially mischievous is to 
be apprehended — if you quit, much is to be dreaded; that the same motives which 
induced you to accept originally ought to decide you to continue till matters have 
assumed a more determinate aspect; that indeed, it would have been better, as re- 
gards your own character, that you had never consented to come foward, than 
now to leave the business unfinished, and in danger of being undone; that in the 
event of storms arising, there would be an imputation either of want of foresight or 
want of firmness ; and, in fine, that, on personal and public accounts, on patriotic 
and prudential considerations, the clear path to be pursued by you will be again to 
obey the voice of your country. I trust, and I pray God that you will determine 
to make a further sacrifice of your tranquillity and happiness to the public good." 

Two years ago, a distinguished son of New England, in deliv- 
ering an impressive and instructive Address in connexion with the 
imposing ceremony of laying the corner-stone of that noble monu- 
ment whose grand proportions and soaring majesty begin already to 
attest the generous fullness of a nation's gratitude to her greatest 
benefactor, uttered language which J am proud to have an op- 
portunity of now reiterating. He asked : " Who ever thinks of 
Washington as a mere politician ? Who ever associates him 
with the petty arts and pitiful intrigues of partisan office seekers 
or partisan office-holders? Who ever pictures him canvassing for 
votes, dealing out proscription, or doling out patronage?" I con- 
fidently answer, No one ! There was too much of true eleva- 
tion of sentiment and disinterested patriotism in his lofty soul, to 
allow him to play, for a single day or a single hour, the con- 
temptible part of a partisan President. Indeed, I am perfectly 



13 

persuaded that it would be grossly unjust to recognise him as hav- 
ing been, at any period of his life, a partisan at all, in the sense 
generally attached to that term. No man deplored parly ex- 
cesses more than he did, or was more inclined to condemn those 
illiberal prejudices which the warfare of party is so well calculated to 
engender. In confirmation of what 1 have ventured to declare 
upon this point, allow me to read a short extract from a letter 
written by him to Mr. Jefferson, in the year 1792 : 

" How unfortunate and how much to be regretted is it, while we are encom- 
passed on all sides with avowed enemies and insidious friends, internal dissensions 
should be harrowing and tearing our vitals. The latter to me is the most serious, 
the most alarming, and the most afflicting of the two ; and without more charity 
for the opinions and acts of one another in governmental matters, or some more 
infallible criterion, by which the truth of speculative opinions, before they have 
undergone the test of experience, is to be forejudged, than has yet fallen to the lot 
of fallibility, I believe it will be difficult, if not impracticable, to manage the reins 
of Government, or to keep the parts of it together; for if, instead of laying ou r 
shoulders to the machine after measures are decided on, one pulls this way, and 
another that, before the utility of the thing is fairly tried, it must inevitably be torn 
asunder ; and in my opinion the fairest prospect of happiness and prosperity that 
ever was presented to man will be lost, perhaps forever. 

" My earnest wish and my fondest hope, therefore, is that, instead of wounding 
suspicions and irritating charges, there may be liberal allowances, mutual forbear- 
ances, and temporizing yieldings on all sides. Under the exercise of these, matters 
will go on smoothly, and, if possible, more prosperously. Without them every 
thing must rub ; the wheels of Government will clog ; our enemies will triumph ; 
and, by throwing their weight into the disaffected scale, may accomplish the 
ruin of the goodly fabric we have been erecting." 

At the close of his last Presidential term, in his memorable 
Farewell Address, he again expressed himself as follows : 

" I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with par- 
ticular references to the founding them on geographical discriminations. Let me 
now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner 
against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. 

" This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in 
the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists in different shapes in all Go- 
vernments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed ; but in those of the popu- 
lar form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. 

" The alternate dominion of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit 
of revenge natural to party dissension, which, in different age3 and countries, has 
perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this 



14 

leads, at length, to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and. 
miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and re- 
pose in the absolute power of an individual ; and, sooner or later, the chief of 
some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns 
this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty. 

" W fiout looking; r orward to an extremity of this kind — which, nevertheless, 
ought not to be entirely out of sight — the common and continual nvschiefs of the 
spirit of party are srfficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to 
discourage and restrain it. 

" It serves always to distract the pihlic counci's, and enfeeble the public admin- 
istration ; it agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; 
kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments occasional riot and 
insurrection ; it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a 
facilitated access to the Government itself through the channels of party passions. 
Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will 
of another." 

Fellow-citizens, such was the life, character, and public ser- 
vices of George Washington ; such his claims to our respect 
and gratitude; such his title to be remembered by all the vota- 
ries of liberty who shall inhabit this fair land in all future time. 
Owing to the melancholy shortness of human life, and the de- 
plorable imperfeciion of individual memoiy, the greatest and 
most glorious nf those achievements, which are calculated to at- 
tract the admiration and call forth the plaudits of mankind, would 
cease in a few years to be recollected upon earth, but for the pious 
diligence of those whose generous ambition it is to rescue the 
fading memoiials of renown from the gulf of oblivion, and to 
transmit the light of illustrious example to the remotest genera- 
tions of posterity. This monument, erected in honor of him 
" who was fust in war, first in peace, and first in the heaits of his 
countrymen," will remain, I trust, a durable memorial of the re- 
spect and gratitude of the nation to him who, more than all 
others, contributed to bring the nation itself into existence; and 
a thousand years hence, the passing traveller, who pauses here 
to survey the goodly fabiic, shall kindle with enthusiasm as he is 
reminded of the glories which encircle the name of Washington, 
and thank us who are now here for the generous recollections 
which, by our agency, may be then awakened in his bosom. 

But let me ; fellow- citizens, in conclusion, call your attention 



15 

for a moment to a subject which was a source of more solicitude 
to the mind of this great man, when returning (o the shades of 
private life, than all others connected with the future honor and 
welfare of the republic. I allude to the apprehension which he 
so eloquently expressed in his Farewell Address, that geographi- 
cal parties might spring up among us by whose instrumentality 
the harmony of the nation might be interrupted, and the union 
of the States be subverted. I refer to the warning which he left 
on record for the future guidance of his countrymen against the 
effects of " characterizing parties by geographical discrimina- 
tions, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western." Let me 
repeat his own solemn words : 

" The unity of Government which constitutes you one people is also now dear 
to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real inde- 
pendence; the support of your tranquillity at home; your peace abroad ; of your 
prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to fore- 
see that, from different causes, and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, 
many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth — as 
this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal 
and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly 
and insidously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly esti- 
mate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual 
happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attach- 
ment to it ; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of 
your political safety and prospeiity; watching for its preservation with jealous 
anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can, in 
any event, be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of 
every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble 
the sacred ties which now link together its various parts." 

May these parting admonitions of the illustrious Washington 
sink deep into the hearts of his countrymen of the present gene- 
ration ! May his solemn words of warning be treasured up by 
all who desire the peace, the happiness, and the perpetuity of our 
free institutions ! May sectional jealousy, fanatical rage, the ac- 
cursed ambition for notoriety and power, the low appetite for 
place and its emoluments, and the spirit of political rivalry, be 
banished forever from the council halls of (he nation! Let jus- 
tice, brotherly feeling, and true courtesy restrain the turbid cur- 
rent of angry and mischievous debate, and compose the discordant 



16 

elements of party strife, which have so long and so discreditably 
disturbed the public quiet, and obstructed all wholesome and ne- 
cessary legislation ! Here, in sight of the magnificent Capitol of 
this great Republic, whose pillared strength is beautifully typical 
of that grand federative fabric from which 

" no part can be removed 

Without infringement of the general symmetry" — 

in view of the majestic river whose waters, in their course to- 
wards the ocean, alike lave the tomb of Washington and whis- 
per their murmuring homage to his memory as they flow by the 
place of his nativity — here, in the midst of the assembled wisdom 
of the nation, and in presence of this vast multitude of my patri- 
otic countrymen, I urge you, and all of you — I entreat you, I be- 
seech you, at this moment of awful peril to the Republic — that 
ye do your duty, and nothing but your duty, to the Constitution, 
to the Union, and to the sacred cause of Liberty itself! 



ABB1E 



BY 



GEOBGE W. P. CUSTIS, 



OF 



Arlington, 



MR. CUSTIS'S ADDRESS. 



At the request of the Managers of the Washington National 
Monument Society, the veteran orator, George W. P. Custis, 
of Arlington, addressed the audience, as follows : 

He said that he appeared before them a man of the past. It was verging upon 
half a century since he first mounted the rostrum and addressed an audience on 
the ever to be venerated Fourth of July. He thanked God that he had been 
spared to his sixty-first celebration of the National Birth Day, commencing 
with our present happy Government. He had not the remotest idea of being 
called upon on the present occasion, but as he never spoke from written docu- 
ments, but simply from the impulses of the heart, he should address Americans 
from the heart of an American. 

Mr. Custis observed, we celebrate this glorious day under auspices peculiarly 
happy ; our ceremonial being held at the base of the Monument erecting to the 
fame and memory of the PATER PATRIAE, may it continue to rise in colossal 
grandeur, the work of the People of a mighty empire— the marble memorial of 
the Father of his Country ! 

When Napoleon led his legions to the conquest of Egypt, as he marched by 
the Pyramids of Cheops, he cried to his soldiers, " Comrades! from the height 
of that pyramid forty centuries behold our actions !" So when in long distant 
day the chief of the great Western Empire shall lead forth our embattled host to 
combat for the mastery of the world, he will halt before this towering structure, 
and exclaim, " Soldiers ! from the cloud-capped summit of that Monument the 
spirit of Washington beholds our actions !" [Applause.] Proud and venera- 
ble are the recollections which this glorious Anniversary calls up to the Ameri- 
cans from the brave old days of the heroic age to the present time. Among the 
most touching of the memories of the past are the deaths on the day of Inde- 
pendence of two of the most illustrious of the Conscript Fathers of the Fourth 
of July, seventeen hundred and seventy-six. 

Jefferson, rejoicing in the success of the great experiment of self-government, 
to the rise and progress of which he had so nobly contributed, expired with the 
calmness of a philosopher, at peace with himself and all mankind ; while Adams, 
made of sterner stuff and a more heroic cast of character, displayed "the ruling 



20 

passion strong in death." He had arrived at patriarchal age when the morning sa 
lute told of the return of the National Anniversary. As the discharge of artillery 
shook the couch on which the venerable statesman was reposing, he asked his at- 
tendants, " What mean those sounds ?" and was answered, 'Tis the morning salute 
for the Fourth of July. The lamp of life, then flickering in the socket, flared up for 
the last time, as the dying patriot, raising himself up on his couch, emphatically ex- 
claimed, " The Fourth of July! why that means independence! Independence 
forever! !" and died. 

Peace to thy ashes, hero as well as statesman of Independence, honor to thy 
memory; for well did thy great political rival term thee "the Ajax Telamon of 
her cause in the House and out of the House." 

" With thy latest breath, 
" Thou felt the ruling passion strong in death, 
"So in that moment, as in all the past, 
" Oh ! save my country, Heaven, it was thy last." 

The orator continued : I hold in my hand a portion of earth from the stupend- 
ous mound erected by the people of Poland, to commemorate the virtues and ser- 
vices of their illustrious patriot and hero Thaddeus Kosciusko. Kosciusko 
*' fired by Freedom's cause, fought to make that freedom ours." Having gal- 
lantly contributed to found the Empire of National Liberty in the New World, he 
returned to his native land, and struggled to emancipate Poland from her thraldom, 
and to place her in the rank of nations. He was cloven down in a disastrous bat- 
tle, " and freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell." In homage to the memory of 
an apostle of Liberty in two worlds, let the earth of Poland, from the mound of 
Kosciusko, be mingled with the marble of America in the Monument of Washing- 
ton. [Applause.] Mr. Custis observed : While with joyous hearts we assemble 
to celebrate this anniversary, how comes, it my countrymen, that we hear the ill- 
omened sound of Disunion so rife in the land ? Of a truth, in my life's young day, 
it would have been a bold man who would have dared to utter the word disunion 
to the dear glorious old Thirteen. A standing sentiment at the 4th of July celebra- 
tions of the olden times was, " Palsied be the tongue that would utter Disunion of 
the States." 

What an example does the events of the present day offer to the rising genera- 
tion of Americans ! Ourforefatherstaughtus to believe that in union there is strength, 
that " united we stand, divided we fall." It was to give union and strength to our 
government and laws, that our admirable Constitution was formed. It is only by 
union and strength that the constitution can be preserved and the Republic per- 
petuated to remote generations. And let me ask you, Americans, have we not un- 
der the pure and benign influences of the Constitution, risen to Empire with a speed 
and glory unknown before in the history of nations ? Has not the American Re- 
public burst upon the world with a meteor glare that dazzles while it astonishes 
mankind? Look aiound you, and behold a spectacle unique in the history of 
as;es ! 



21 

You see the work of centuries, in other countries, accomplished in three score 
years in your own. An Empire of liberty and laws, comprising twenty millions of 
free and happy people, occupying a territory bounded by oceans, and more vast 
than that o'er which the Roman Eagle ever flew, or on which the Roman sandal 
ever trod. European nations say there is magic in this thing. True, the magic 
consists in three words, Liberty, Union, and the Constitution. [Applause.] And 
will Americans dare with unhallowed hands to destroy a fabric, the master-work of 
patriots and sages, the great and renowned of the land ? Beware, lest in committing 
so monstrous a crime, you disturb not the slumbers of the tomb of Mount Vernon, 
and cause the sarcophagus to " ope its ponderous and marble jaws," and the 
shadowy form of the Father of his Country to appear among U3. It would appear 
" more in sorrow than in anger," and) would say, What is it you would do, my chil- 
dren, " a deed without a name?" Was it for this that, with my brave compatriots, 
we toiled, we fought, and bled, that we might leave to you as an inheritance the 
inestimable blessings of civil and religious liberty, the Constitution and laws ? Was 
it for this that we struggled through long years of privation and blood, to found 
an empire that should serve as an asylum for the oppressed of all nations, and an 
example to those who would throw off the yoke of the oppressor, and strike for 
the natural rights of mankind ? But if you will destroy a government, the purest, 
the wisest, the best, that ever was bestowed upon man, let our memories, and our 
ashes, be buried in its ruins. We wish not to be remembered in a dishonoured 
land. Pause, my children ! pause in your mad career ! pause and reflect upon a 
warning from the grave. Return to your allegiance to the Union, the Constitution 
and the laws ; restore harmony and good fellowship among brethren of the same 
family. Be free, be happy ; let the Republic be immortal. 

The orator continued: If Disunion, that now rears its hated form among us, 
proceeds in its mad career, then <c farewell, a long farewell, to all our greatness." 
The Republic " put forth its tender leaves of hope," blossomed in glory, and bore 
its blushing honors thick upon it. But ah, disunion is " a frost, a killing frost," 
and while the Republic is " ripening in its greatness, nips its root," and when it 
falls, " it falls like Lucifer, never to hope again." 

Shame ! oh my countrymen ! that faction and disunion should thus stalk through 
our land, and the republic yet so young. Five centuries hence would be time 
enough for the decline, and five more for the fall of the noblest empire of liberty 
and laws, the purest and wisest system of human government that ever adorned 
the annals of mankind. But if we are to fall, let us not fall ignobly, and by suici- 
dal hands ; rather let it be in some mighty convulsion that shall shake an Hemis- 
phere, and give an impulse to the destinies of the world. 

" Then welcome Fate, 
" And if we perish, we will perish great, 
" Yet in a mighty deed, we will expire, 
" Let future ages hear it, and admire." 

[Applause.] 



22 

Why (observed Mr. Custis) does the assembled wisdom of the masters of the 
republic deliberate so long upon a Slavery question ? Why is the subject of sla- 
very a matter of debate at all : it is an institution that hails from our colonial in- 
fancy, that has grown with our growth, strengthened with our strength ; it is re- 
cognised by our laws, and admitted by the Constitution, the compact that binds us 
together as a nation. Would you seek the origin of this great national misfortune, 
for assuredly it is not our fault— look to the Bristol merchants of England, it was 
their insatiate avarice to monopolize the cultivation of the " baneful tueei," to 
America, " the direful spring of woes unnumbered," that robbed Africa of her chil- 
dren, and urged the slave ship to the shores of the New World. In vain did the 
colonists petition their ancient masters to stay the evil in its commencement. Their 
remonstrances were unheeded, insult was added to injury, and additional cargoes 
of slaves disgorged upon our shores. 

Permit me to observe, that in all matters touching the affiir of slavery, between 
the North and the South, the South is decidedly the party aggrieved. It is an af- 
fair purely southern in all its bearing, and our brethren of the North ought to have 
nothing to do with it. Then why do they continue to foment an agitation that, 
while it can do them no possible good, does infinite harm to us. It is like the story 
of "the boys and the frogs," while it may be an amusement to them, it is death 
to us. 

The Northerner boa3ts that his foot prints are to be found on Free Soil. The 
South,, the Sunny South, "my own, my native land," with equal pride, may 
boast, when pointing to the reminiscences of the heroic age, and exclaim. If yowr 
soil is free, Southern blood flowed, and that in no stinted stream to make it so. 
Let us draw up the curtain of Time, and look upon the scenes in the dawn of the 
Revolution. 

The yeomanry of New England are assembled on the heights of Cambridge, 
and see, a gallant band approaches, as gaily their banner floats in the breeze ; 'tis 
the corps of Morgan and the Southern Hunting Shirts, pressing on to play their 
parts in the first acts of the Grand Drama of the Revolution. Their picturesque 
costume, their stalwart forms, their hardy and martial bearing, and their far-famed 
skill in the use of the deadly arms they bore, elicited loud shouts of welcome, as. 
they stalked into the Camp at Cambridge, a band of young giants for the combats 
of liberty. 

Washington's eye beamed with joy when he beheld his re-enforcement. Full 
well did he know the value of the Hunting Shirt, full well had he proven its might 
on the fatal field of the Monongahela, when three companies of riflemen held at 
bay the savage foe, and covered the retreat of the shattered remains of a veteran 
army. 

Will you change the scene to Long Island, the first pitched battle of the war, 
where the southern chivalry shown in its native lustre ? Virginia, Maryland, and 
gallant little Delaware, crowned themselves with laurels on that memorable day 
that time or circumstance can never fade. 



23 

At the Battle of the Brandywine, illustrious Greene prayed of the Commander 
in Chief, that he would remember in the general orders the conduct of his (Greene's) 
brave division in that hard-fought and disastrous day ; Washington modestly 
declined, saying, I am aware, General, of their merits, but they are my countrymen ; 
then said Greene, who it is to be recollected in martial renown, was second only 
to him who was First of All, May I beg of your excellency, as a special favor, 
that you will, for the remainder of the war, permit me to command a Southern 
Division ? 

But why multiply instances, so many of which are treasured in history ? Go 
to the fields of the Revolution, dig up the remains of the brave, who died for lib- 
erty, and my life on it, you will find the bones of many a southerner there, moul- 
dered into Free Soil. [Applause.] 

Mr. C continued : Far be it from your orator to speak one word in disparagement 
of the northern troops in the War of Independence ; they were good soldiers, 
patrtotic and brave, and stood deservedly high in the affections of the Chief. We 
had happily in the " times that tried men's souls," no sectional lines of demarca- 
tion, no distinction between North and South, while Americans from each, fought 
side by side, for that invaluable boon, which was to become the common property 
of all. Then why distinction now, between members of the same political family ? 

I affirm for the South, for my own, my native land, that although she has slavery 
in her bosom, and so had Rome, Athens, and Sparta, in the palmiest days of those 
ancient Republics, yet the spirit of liberty exists in as much purity at this time, 
south of Mason's and Dixon's line, as it did in the brave old days of '76. 

We of the South are willing to give «' honor to whom honor is due." We yield 
the palm to our northern brethren, in their steady habits, their untiring industry, 
their gallant enterprise, their useful improvements, their extensive commerce, and 
their public schools ; but while we envy not their greatness and prosperity, we have 
to pray of their magnanimity, the one poor privilege, that on a particular subject 
they will let us alone. [Applause.] 

The orator continued : Friends and countrymen, clouds and darkness appear 
gathering around our destinies, but come good, come ill, come storm, come sun- 
shine, there is one who honors us with his presence on this interesting occasion, 
who will do his duty in the approaching crisis, be the consequences what they 
may. 

" Behold the Chief who now commands, 

"Again to serve his country stands, 

" The rock on which the storm may beat, 

" But armed in virtue, firm and true, 

" Hia hopes are fixed on heaven and you." 

Support your Chief in the high station to which your gratitude for his great ser- 
vices has raised him. He has often lain hard for America ; aye, and from the lakes 
of the West to the swamps of Florida, and the torrid plains of Mexico, has borne 
your Star Spangled Banner in triumph in the field. Support him in his measures 



24 

for the public weal ; he asked not his high office at your hands ; he would have 
been content with his fame, and to have retired to private life, asking no other re- 
ward for his long and gallant services, than the affection of his fellow citizens. 
But the people ordered otherwise. They determined to show to the world that 
Republics were not ungrateful; and from north, south, east and west, the welkin 
rang with the cry of Hurrah for old Rough and Ready, President of the United 
States ! Then support the man of your choice. After forty years spent in the 
service of his country, his grey hairs will not betray her now. [Applause.] 

The orator concluded by observing : Reflect, Americans, what a pretence our sec- 
tional differences afford to the despots of Europe to decry republican institutions ; 
and how they exult in the hope that the failure of self-government in the United 
States may lead to the establishment of monarchy throughout the world. I trust 
that they will soon find that they have reckoned without their host, and I pray God 
to grant, and it would cheer my old heart to see the American people, having set- 
tled their difficulties among themselves, unite in restoring to the Republic that 
glorious spirit of patriotism and brotherly affection that animated their fathers in 
the brave old days of '76, and the cry be heard from the ocean to the Alleghanies, 
from Maine to California, of Liberty, Union and the Constitution. 

" Then firm, united let us be, 
" Rallying round our Liberty, 
" As a band of brothers joined, 
" Peace andsafety we shall find." 

GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC ! 



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